As some here know already, my OpenBSD install has moved from an HP Vli8 500 to a salvaged Dell 4500 case/mobo, leaving behind a still usable system with a 40GB PATA drive replacing the twin disks and a wifi card in place of the 3com nic. The machine in question also has a floppy disk and cd-rom drive in addition tot he wifi, thus

Leaving me with an unused PC ^_^

I only have one problem, what the heck to use it for!?

There is nothing service wise that I actually need, that isn't already running and configured or half memorized.

I've just burned a newer disk of Slackware (12.1) and plan on using it, assuming that getting the ralink based adapter to work doesn't give me a headache. Actually, I never realized how good OpenBSDs hardware support for wireless (without screwing around) was before now. She might have X installed but probably won't be using it actively because I prefer SSH.

I rarely use GNU/Linux distributions but Slackware is my favorite and one of the few that I have any respect for. I know FreeBSD/OpenBSD quite well but I've have never really used a GNU/Linux system on a regular basis. So I suppose it's worth trying to put one linux box into use here

You could say that when it comes to unix like systems: I chose BSD on day one as my primary system.

I've got numerous disks of FreeBSD, Slackware, Ubuntu laying around and a few for other systems; Debian, NetBSD, etc. So there is plenty of OS related options if the kernels shipped with slack hate my hardware. But I still want to set it up running a GNU/Linux.

Trying to bring this system online is very much a "because I can" operation then a "because I need to" one. This babe makes 4 PCs here. I might move my MySQL database to it or use it to store my incoming mail but there is really nothing I /need/ to use it for.....

Any suggestions?

The odds of me ever being paid to do any kind of administrator work or programming jobs is probably pretty slim without collage or previous work experience. So there are no 'professional' considerations in what to use this box for.

When I'm not working or tinkering with a program, I do enjoy 'playing' with software I can put to use, find some interesting but helpful daemon, learn how it works, learn how to configure it, e.t.c. And put it to work doing something on my LAN.

But I've generally done that with everything I can actually use....

I have needed remote access to machines at various times, so I've learned to deal with VNC, X11, RDP, and my beloved SSH to fulfill those needs on Windows/*nix. I needed a file server when my USB flash drive broke, so I learned how to work with samba, nfs, sshfs, etc. I needed to figure out how to get my printer working over the network, so I set out on a trail with cups and lpd, although I actually never had time to get the printer printing the jobs (dang gum work and family tag team monopolizing time...). Needed local access to a MySQL db to conserve bandwidth on a web site, so bingo was her namo as soon as I found the reference manual.

There has to be some thing useful this machine can do but I can't think of any :\.